The Online Shopping Thread

This is a discussion on The Online Shopping Thread within Gadgets, Computers & Software, part of the Shifting gears category; The other day my friend stumbled upon an irresistible offer on BookMyOffer . Despite warning him, he went ahead with ...

The other day my friend stumbled upon an irresistible offer on BookMyOffer. Despite warning him, he went ahead with the purchase

Buy Shuffle Clip On Mini MP3 Player & Get Free Reebok College Back Pack Bag Signed By Ms Dhoni - http://goo.gl/urvbhE

And this is what he received - a dell laptop backpack and one cheap MP3 player

Followed your link and landed on a page which showed the bag and MP3 player looking slightly better than what your friend received. However, the price quoted is Re. 1/-. Did he really got the deal for this much? If so, then it was indeed a great deal!

And this is what he received - a dell laptop backpack and one cheap MP3 player

Must have seen it on Facebook. That is where they trap fishes like us !
You should have shown him my post, a page back. Thank my stars that I cancelled the order and most importantly put it on COD !!
Even I refused to accept it and the bookmyoffer guys didn't bother calling me as to why I refused the order. Clearly showed that I knew what were they upto !

Quote:

Originally Posted by saket77

Followed your link and landed on a page which showed the bag and MP3 player looking slightly better than what your friend received. However, the price quoted is Re. 1/-. Did he really got the deal for this much? If so, then it was indeed a great deal

All deals on the page shows between Re1. to Rs.51. And when you place the actual order it shoots up, but to a more realistic level.

Strictly avoid this site !!

Irony: The statement on the shuffle packet: WARNING: BE AWARE OF IMITATED PRODUCTS BUY ONLY ORIGINAL OKINAX PRODUCT

Bought Xiaomi Yi action camera from Geek Buying with some basic accessories.
Good shopping experience.
The camera is currently under testing and has exceeded my expectations in terms of both video and picture quality.
But there are still some minor teething issues.
It is indeed a GoPro killer for a budget.

Attaching a few pics

Wow, Xiaomi enters more areas of our life. I wonder when they will start making AC machines (I wish, but ok, highly unlikely).

Here is the Miui India blog entry. I wonder why they are not selling it on their own mi.com site. If it were there, and I knew I could get it in a couple of days, and the price was comparable, I'd just buy one cold.

By the way, having bought the phone (m4i) I thought I should be able to say the name. It is like show-me, but with "show" rhyming with "how." English is a lousy language to express anything phonetic!

A problem arises as these e-commerce websites flourish and offer more and more products. The problem of keeping their stuff organized and well-sorted.

The problem is that one product can be listed under many categories, such as bagpacks can be sorted under luggage, laptop accessories, travel, sports/fitness/outdoors, computers, etc. Now when you use the search feature, you are presented with bagpacks offered under different departments. You must choose a specific department to sort your product by price, discounts or whatever. Well, then how can you choose just one department which ideally means missing those listed under other departments which may have better offers on them. Also, as I see, all platforms like FK, SD, Amazon, etc are also selling unbranded products which are in plenty. It becomes difficult to sort ones which are offered by decent manufacturers as the list of brands are reaching unimagineable numbers.

In my opinion, these websites need some effort now to reorganize and sort out their product classifications so that the user has a better experience shopping and should not leave the site confused!

I've wasted a couple thousand getting fake perfumes by ordering online for myself and my wife with brands like FCUK, Jacques Bogart, Mango etc. I've even used WS retail from flipkart but the perfume wasn't original as didn't last 1 hour where the original one used to last even after a wash.

Is there a way of checking the authenticity of perfumes being bought online? Or any reliable websites which stocks original perfume only.

I've wasted a couple thousand getting fake perfumes by ordering online for myself and my wife with brands like FCUK, Jacques Bogart, Mango etc. I've even used WS retail from flipkart but the perfume wasn't original as didn't last 1 hour where the original one used to last even after a wash.

Is there a way of checking the authenticity of perfumes being bought online? Or any reliable websites which stocks original perfume only.

Initially, when these sites started selling perfumes, starting with perfume2order.com they were all originals. But now, all the perfumes that I buy from any site are not authentic. When new they have the whiff of the original but a few sprays onwards, they mostly smell generic. Still trying to find some site which is selling authentic.
So back to the stores where I can try out and then buy like in the old days.

So, back to the stores where I can try out and then buy like in the old days.

That's what we had decided. In fact even when I placed my last order my wife strictly warned me against it. But me being the lazy me and looking at some lucrative discounts decided to give it one last try.

5k+ wasted and now I'm more than willing to visit the physical retail stores again.

One of the FCUK perfumes I ordered for my wife was supposed to have a velvety coconut base note but the only note it had was Parachute Coconut Oil! I kid you not, it smelled like coconut oil but the good thing about it was that it wouldn't last more than 10 mins for someone else to even notice.

Now these sites are insisting on using the app when accessed from a mobile. I am not sure why they need to decide which is better. l am not against apps, but at the same time, I would like to decide whether to use an app or the browser.

Sites insist on using the apps for various reasons like
Push notifications: They keep pushing offers and other messages, which they will not be able to do if you don't use the app. Without the app, the other option for notifications is either SMS or email. SMS can be challenging with DNC and emails will end up in spam. Most app users will not know or will not bother to turn off notifications and this helps in instant sales in many cases.

Price check: When on app, it is very tedious to do a price check with other sites. A decent % of population will fall for the 'deals' on the site and will complete purchases without comparing with other sites.

App loyalty: When using an app, people are restricted by choice. Otherwise one who would do a generic search for product from a browser and go to a different site may end up buying from his favorite app.

Push notifications: They keep pushing offers and other messages, which they will not be able to do if you don't use the app.

Price check: When on app, it is very tedious to do a price check with other sites.

App loyalty: When using an app, people are restricted by choice.

For the latter two to be correct, mobile devices need to be sold without browsers; which is not the case. For the first, Chrome nowadays offer site-specific push notifications. I don't think any of these are the true motivations for the e-commerce sites to go app-only. The fact that they are doing this only in India needs to factor in somewhere.

Just popped in to see how this thread has grown - unmanageable, like online shopping itself .

Believe me, online shopping is a scam waiting to happen (happening?). I rarely buy online these days and you should avoid the likes of Snapdeal, indiatimes and many other not so reputed ones. You can be sure that Flipkart and Amazon wont stand by your purchase just like the brick-and-mortar ones who shrug off their responsibility in fine print - sigh, if only we'd read the T&C BEFORE we pay. With no laws to rein in the scamsters, you will be the loser [If you've had a good experience, bail out while the going is good. Be aware of these hustlers who know the game well]